Preserving Culture and Building Legacy with Genice Lee

In this episode of The Sandwich Generation Survival Guide, host Candace Dellacona welcomes Genice Lee from Harvest Estate and Appraisals. They discuss the importance of legacy, the role of passion assets in preserving family history, and how Genice’s personal experiences have shaped her professional journey. Genice shares valuable insights on appraising sentimental items, the significance of documentation and inventories, and the overlooked value of family paperwork. They also delve into the unique challenges faced by African American families in preserving their cultural artifacts. Tune in to learn practical tips for estate planning and the importance of storytelling in family legacies.

00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome
00:41 Genice Lee's Background and Expertise
01:55 The Importance of Legacy and Stories
02:58 Genice's Personal Journey into Appraising
05:43 Challenges in Estate Management
09:47 Sentimental vs. Monetary Value
17:05 Preserving African American Artifacts
29:30 The Role of Technology in Legacy Preservation
31:46 Conclusion and Contact Information

To learn more about Harvest Estate & Appraisal Services, visit their website at https://www.harvestestateandappraisals.com/

To learn more about Genice Lee, visit her profile on the International Society of Appraisers website at https://www.isa-appraisers.org/find-an-appraiser/profile/12796/genice-r-lee

Follow Genice on social media:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/genice-lee-asa-isa-am-a6b22929/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/harvest4you_/

Creators and Guests

Host

Candace Dellacona

Principal, Offit Kurman

Producer

Eric Kovac

Creative Team Manager, Offit Kurman

What is The Sandwich Generation Survival Guide?

Welcome to The Sandwich Generation Survival Guide, where we explore the challenges and strategies of navigating life caught between work demands and supporting our loved ones while maintaining our own well-being. Join us in this dynamic podcast series as we uncover the complexities individuals face balancing multiple roles in the modern world. Our host, Candace Dellacona, shares personal experiences and professional insights to guide listeners through this complex journey.

Candace Dellacona: Welcome to the
Sandwich Generation Survival Guide.

I am your host, Candace Dellacona.

I am delighted to welcome Genice
Lee from Harvest Estate and

Appraisals straight outta Texas.

Welcome, Genice.

Genice Lee: Glad to be here.

Thank you so much for having me.

Candace Dellacona: I am
so excited to have you.

We had such an interesting conversation
and I wish that our listeners were on

for that first conversation, but I'm
gonna do my best to share with our

listeners and all the folks out there.

How you impacted the way that I
think about things like legacy.

So we're gonna get right into it,
but I want everyone to know that you

not only are the owner of Harvest
Estate and Appraisals out of Texas,

which by the way is nationwide.

You're highly educated having, your
undergrad degree from UDub, great

state of Washington in Japan regional
studies, and you are Alma Mater you

and I share is American University in
Washington DC and you have been certified

by multiple organizations including
being an accredited senior appraiser

from the Smithsonian Resident Program,
you're part of the Uniform Standards

of Professional Appraisal Practice.

You've appeared on PBS's television
show, Antique Road Show's, sister

Show, Chesapeake Collectible, and you
are passionate about talking about

preserving culture and building legacy.

So that's really what I would
love to talk with you about today.

So welcome, Genice.

That is quite an intro, but you
are quite, quite the expert, so

we're so happy to have you here.

Genice Lee: Again, thank you.

I'm glad to be here.

And yes very passionate about legacy.

How to transfer and pass these objects
and the stories through families.

In our prior discussion, we were
talking about shows like the Antique

Road Show and Chesapeake Collectibles
and why people love those shows so

much, I really believe goes beyond the
object, but really it is the story that

connects the families to the object.

That really is what draws the
viewers in and why people love

to come on the show and talk.

They love to share the
stories from their family.

I just flew back in from Maryland filming
Chesapeake Collectibles newest season

that'll air in the spring of next year.

And I tell you, it was just fun.

The stories and we even had someone
on there who came in with one of those

stories people love, that Goodwill find.

She found an object at Goodwill for $7 and
it ended up being worth three to $5,000.

And so those are the stories
that people just love.

Candace Dellacona: Absolutely.

But I think, even before we get there,
I wanted to talk to you about how

you got into this sort of rarefied
world of appraising valuables.

So share with us your
trajectory, how you got here.

Genice Lee: The space of valuation,
which is really what the industry is.

We're valuers, we assign value to objects.

Started for me with a love of history
and seeing things in my grandparents'

home and having questions about them.

And then as time went on, I became one
of those people who loved that thrill

of the hunt we were just talking about
looking for that hidden treasure.

And my husband, with his very
practical side said you keep buying

things and our house is starting
to look like a thrift store.

Do you think you could figure
out a way to turn that passion

into a way to monetize it?

And so I took that challenge up and
started the classes at George Washington

University in Washington, DC, a
certification through them joining

the American Society of Appraisers,
getting accredited with them,

taking classes with the Smithsonian.

But I would say a switch that really
flipped for me that I understood

the struggles of my clients is
when my own mother passed away

being the executor of her estate.

I had the skillset to do the inventorying
and getting those objects for the closing

of her estate, but I then understood
the struggles of clients dealing with

the dynamics in a family, whether it's
a blended family, whether it's added to

families from marriage stepchildren, new
husbands you're trying to mourn the loss

of a loved one well as the courts are
telling you certain documents have to be

presented to them in a timely fashion.

You're dealing with companies,
you're trying to close out

accounts, and in the midst of all
of that, it really hit home for me.

Some of the additional
struggles that my clients had.

I had not seen those before, even
though I was working with these same

issues, but I was on the outside looking
in, and so I really had a compassion

for those clients that couldn't go
back into a loved one's home because

they were still grieving and they
needed someone to help them with that.

So that's really how my journey started.

Candace Dellacona: That is one
of the things about any of us who

have that sort of passion, right?

Is that something impacts you
personally and it changes your view

of what maybe you were doing in the
past or the way in which you were

handling those objects in the past.

I appreciate your perspective as both
the professional and as the daughter.

So tell me, when you were going through
the process of dealing with your

mom's estate, what were the issues
that came up for you from a personal

perspective that you felt were sort
of at odds from your role as finding

economic value, if we should say.

So more about the
connection to the object.

Can you think of any specific
example that came up for you when

you were going through that process?

Genice Lee: I was fortunate in
dealing with my mom's estate that

she did all the things that you would
hope that people do in preparing.

I know one of the things that we
talked about is that a lot of times

people will prepare for a baby, right?

Everyone's excited about that new life.

There's the baby shower,
there's establishing bank

accounts and college funds.

But a lot of times people shy away
from having that much consideration

in transferring to when they're not
gonna be here or how their loved

ones are going to deal with that.

And so my mom had done a
lot of the right things.

She had a will, and she left
the ledger of bank accounts

and where to find information.

Added complexity to that scenario
was that my mother had remarried, my

father had passed away, and so I was
now dealing with this blended family

of a father who had his own children.

And most things went smoothly.

However, there was this one
account where the paperwork somehow

didn't get processed correctly.

And I specifically remembered that my
mother had requested the information

from my younger sister and myself.

so that threw a monkey wrench into
now all of a sudden we're faced

with a probate issue and having the
correct paperworks and even sometimes

having power of attorney can be
challenged by a bank or an institution.

And so there were just
a lot of dynamics that.

Where it should have been smooth sailing
because I had all of the documentation.

I still needed to speak with a lawyer,
and I'm glad that I had someone that

I could go to and talk to about the
challenges of getting her estate done.

But for the most part,
things went smoothly.

I, above everything wanted to
honor her wishes, which she spelled

out quite concisely in her will.

As to who was to get what, how things were
to be split, how she wanted things done.

And I would say on a personal
note, a very transparent note, one

of the bigger hiccups was that my
mother didn't want a funeral and my

grandparents wanted her to have one.

And so to stand up to them and say,
no, we're not gonna have a funeral

because I wanna honor her wishes.

That's not what she wanted.

But, the compromise The compromise
was if you all want to have a memorial

service that you want to plan, my
sister and I will gladly show up and

participate and be with our family.

But we're gonna honor my mother's
wishes not to have funeral.

Candace Dellacona: So obviously
you're speaking my language, right?

We're talking about documents
and the logistics of

preparation and you're so right.

I think that in our culture we
are more enthralled with birth

and joy and things like that.

Why wouldn't we?

And death is something that is sad.

It involves grief and the loss
of somebody that you love.

So it's not surprising that a
lot of people don't have the

proper documents in place.

And I'm so glad that your experience
with your mom's estate was

relatively seamless to that point.

And, you bring up too having the
complexity of a family where you have

your mother who has remarried and
wanting to be very conscious of the

feelings of your mother's husband
while still wanting to own, the

motherhood piece and the daughterhood
piece that you felt and a complexity

with grandparents and all of that.

And that's definitely something
that a lot of clients struggle with.

So when it comes to the actual items
that do not have an intrinsic economic

value, that it is something else and
it maybe isn't mentioned in the will.

How do you talk to families about
those items that would maybe preserve

a cultural aspect of one's family
or perhaps has served as a building

of their legacy, or maybe it's
valued in a way that it should be?

Can you talk a little
bit about those items?

Genice Lee: Yeah, I would say that
one of the things that I often

get to tell people is just because
it's old, does it make it valuable.

That really the job of the
appraiser is to report what

the market says about the item.

So when we're talking about,
sentimental value versus monetary

value what's important is that, back
to what I said in the beginning,

a lot of times it's the story.

And so what I really encourage clients to
do when they're looking at the personal

property, or what I like to call passion
assets is there's a reason that you

collected these things, and a lot of
times if you're able to convey to whomever

you want to receive them, why it was so
important for you to obtain that object

or what was the story behind it when
you purchased it or how you acquired it.

In telling that story, you're
able to convey its importance

in the legacy of your family.

So that becomes the most important
thing to put a note on it.

When people have children that don't
want things, I say can you put a

note on the object so that maybe a
grandchild can have it in the future?

And if there aren't any grandchildren
or any children, what about a niece

or a nephew to convey why this object
is so important in your family?

And then another option is if you
don't convey it that way, maybe you

can convey it to a historic house or
museum and people who can value the

object for the story that it tells,
or the insight it brings, now you're

presenting it to a broader audience.

So there are a lot of ways to preserve
the legacy, of the object for the person.

Candace Dellacona: Yeah,
I think you're right.

As an attorney who has guided
hundreds, maybe thousands at this

point, of clients through an estate
administration, if you will, what you

did for your mom, where you inventory
the bank accounts and you have the life

insurance and you have the real estate.

These are tangible items
that have an economic value.

So in many ways, it's easier to
marshal those assets and divide them

according to what it says in the will.

So passion objects, which I
love, is that what you called it?

Genice Lee: Passion assets.

Candace Dellacona: Passion assets.

I love that.

And articulating in your own estate
plan what those passion assets are.

Why they have value, whether,
historical, cultural, legacy for your

own family seems incredibly important.

Do you know why families
overlook that if it seems to

have such value to their family?

What is it about things like
that we don't as a culture

address as often as we should?

Genice Lee: I think it's familiarity.

You've grown up with it.

It's, oh, that glass candy dish,
though, it may have brought you

joy as a child because grandma
kept peppermints or wrapped candy.

And when you came over you accessed
it, you touched it, you handled it.

To think that carnival glass has value and
you're thinking, oh, I grew up with it.

I always got to handle it, touch it.

So it didn't seem anything off
limits or unaccessible to you.

And so we sometimes devalue those things
that we can just casually handle versus

maybe the piece of artwork that's hanging
up on the wall that's out of reach.

And so I am a firm believer of
enjoying the objects that I have.

And so not that maybe the chairs in my
house are from the late 18 hundreds,

but they may be a reproduction
Victorian side chair that I like

to sit down in and read a book.

And someone comes in to my
house and they see it and I

said, oh, yeah, I have a seat.

And they're thinking, oh that's
an antique or my husband's record

collection that we play a lot.

We enjoy listening to it.

There are some collectors that don't
play the records and they're sealed

as if they were purchased brand new,
but I've been one that's liked to

handle the objects that I own so
that I can enjoy them and I like for

other people to enjoy them as well.

Candace Dellacona: That
makes so much sense to me.

Where you're looking to the, I guess
the right term is the reverence with

which somebody treats an object, and
that doesn't necessarily mean that

because it's not hanging on the wall
that it doesn't have value to a family.

When you talk about those items like a
candy dish or something that maybe all

of the grandchildren have had access to
over the course of their childhood and

it's symbolic to what grandma was to
them, how you help families negotiate

the tricky situation when there's one
object and a number of people have the

emotional attachment to that object?

Genice Lee: Boy, that can be tricky.

If you want it, you want it, you want it.

I've seen families do things
such as to draw, right?

So person number one gets this pick and
then in the next round they pick last.

The value in doing an inventory of the
items and understanding the values is it

helps with that process so that if someone
wants a painting hanging on the wall

that's $10,000 and someone else wants five
records that are lower in value, they have

the option to pick a number of objects
to equal the value of that painting.

And so it does help in
equitable distribution.

It may not soothe the savage beast of two
or three people wanting the same object,

but then there are also been caveats
thrown in there that if they cannot come

to an agreement that the piece has to be
sold and the money distributed equally.

So sometimes it behooves the children
or the benefactors to, muscle up

and behave correctly so that piece
doesn't have to get sold off.

Candace Dellacona: Yeah.

That is definitely an issue that
comes up in my practice where

sometimes those items that don't
have a lot of economic value are not

the objects that people fight over.

That it's the, small, sentimental items
that would otherwise, not really render

much on the open market, really caused
the greatest amount of strife because of

the connection to the object, the cultural
connection, the legacy connection.

What would you say in your travels, one
of the things that you and I spoke about

and I think is really important as a
Black American and helping other Black

American families identify and categorize
and honor those artifacts in particular.

I know that you have a lot
of knowledge in this area.

Can you share a little bit about that?

Genice Lee: I would say one of
the more overlooked objects that

tossed away is actually paperwork.

I have had the privilege to appraise
and help place archives with a number

of institutions that are from African
Americans that have been collected

and passed down to what I call the
keeper of the grail or the keeper

of the object, that this is the one
person in the family that the collector

knew would take care of that item
and maybe even gave some direction

in storing it, keeping it, making
sure that it didn't get thrown away.

But if that's the one thing that
I would share with families, all

families, is that one of the things
that is going on in the marketplace is

uncovering of stories that are untold.

Again, we're back to that
theme of telling the story.

Some of those stories we know
at the national level like a Dr.

King,

Candace Dellacona: Right.

Genice Lee: But at the community level
and the local level, there are a lot of

stories and a lot of various communities
that are untold, that have impacted

the history of this country that are
being thrown away as people pass away

because the family doesn't know that
they should look through that paperwork

to see if it connects them in some
way to a national movement or a local

movement that impacted the history
nationally, and it gets thrown away.

And so one of the things that I
find that I'm constantly trying to

communicate to families is there
an untold story here in paperwork?

Was someone the first to pioneer
something, the first to do something?

There was a family that I worked
with in Washington, DC where the

husband was a first to attend
the dental school in Georgetown.

And his wife was more focused on settling
the estate and have the paperwork.

And so I really encouraged her,
do you all have these documents?

And they still had a lot of his documents
and I said, you really should as a family,

rally around, saving those documents.

Maybe finding a place, an institution
a historic house, a organization

that might be interested in them.

There are a number of ways that
these documents A need to be stored.

And I talk with clients about not too
much heat, not too much moisture, so the

proper storage containers where they need
to be stored, how they need to be stored.

Then I also talk with them about there
are a number of ways to decide if you

wanna donate it to an institution.

There are determining factors as
to why you pick an institution.

You wanna give thought to that,
will they digitize it for you so

that public has more access to it.

And then also a lot of times,
organizations such as folks who

are producing for organizations
like Netflix are doing research

and uncovering these untold stories
and turning them into movies.

And so there is a desire
to obtain this new, what we

consider to be new information.

Only because we are not aware of it.

Though the family or a
particular community may be

very well aware of that history.

Candace Dellacona: It brings up
the image of the candy dish, right?

That it's familiar to everybody
in the family that there's not a

recognition that it could have some
significance beyond the family.

And so bringing up something like
paperwork and, perhaps a diploma

representing somebody's accomplishment
and finding out where that lies in

history and why that's important.

So aside from those particular
items, what other paperwork if

that's very largely overlooked.

What other paperwork work is
helpful in providing the family

with some historical context?

Do you have any suggestions on
what they should look out for?

Genice Lee: Hmm.

Wow.

Paperwork.

Again, as folks are passing
away if you're able to really

pay attention to those stories.

I can remember visiting my
great-grandmother in Arkansas

and she was just one of the
funniest people to me at that age.

This lively 83-year-old woman,
and I was like 14 at the time.

I just thought that she had a
lot of spunk, a lot of energy.

But just to listen to the
stories that she had to share.

And for those of you that have people
that are older, to document it, to grab

a tape recorder, get them on camera, get
their story down, get it transcribed.

Save those photographs.

I know one thing that happens often
the African American community

is that the image and knowing who
the person was in the picture gets

separated as that object moves around.

And so unlike a painting that has a
signature and a date, sometimes, not

all of them do, but a lot of them do.

It later helps us to identify and move
it along and track the provenance,

meaning the ownership of how it went
from one person to the next person.

A lot of times that gets lost in
photographs, and so you just have this

photo album with all these pictures
and you're like, who are these

people and what are their stories?

And so I know back in the day, people
would write on the back of a picture.

Now we have all of these fancy ways to
scrapbook and preserve images in a good

way to make those notations so that that
information moves along with the object.

And I think that that's the name
of the game in all of these passion

assets is to identify the object
and try to make sure that pertinent

information moves along with the object.

And the best way to do
that is an inventory.

I mean, if there is one thing that I
would encourage, or another thing that I

would encourage families is the inventory.

It can be used in so many ways.

It can be time consuming, but once
you do it one time, you can use that

inventory, for example, to enter
items into an Excel spreadsheet.

You have the location
where it is in the house.

You have a condition, you can
get the values on the object.

You can add columns to say, this item is
to go to this person or this institution,

or this is what I wish to have happen
to it, were something to happen to me.

You can add things, take away things,
and it's just a great way to track

across multiple situations from insurance
claims to moving to estate planning.

I think the inventory is an
invaluable tool for families.

It takes time, but it's one of those,
once you have it done, you can just

modify on it and use it in multiple ways.

Candace Dellacona: I think you're right.

I think having documentation not only
provides those who are left behind a

guide in terms of what they're looking
for and why it perhaps should be

preserved and should be sought after
and sought out among all the things in

a person's house or their apartment.

I also think, going
back to family conflict.

It is definitely a way if you can
assign a person whom you think would

appreciate the object it definitely
provides extra guidance to someone

who's administering an estate in
terms of what the person's wishes are.

Certain states like New York don't allow
inventories to direct where assets go.

It's gotta be in the actual will.

But trusts actually do allow
things like inventories.

So it's really important to talk to
the local attorney where you live,

to find out if this is allowed, but
it will serve as clear and convincing

evidence as to what you would've wanted
if there is some kind of conflict.

So I love that.

Really practical advice, Genice.

In terms of your role as a sandwich
generation member, we're talking

often here about surviving the
sandwich generation, and not

only surviving, but thriving.

As you move through your career,
I think we're contemporaries here.

And we're trying to launch our
humans that we have at home and

simultaneously advocate for our elders.

Has your perspective changed as
someone who provides value and guides

families through legacy as you find
yourself in the sandwich generation?

Genice Lee: I think understanding
perhaps the generation behind me,

which would be my 19-year-old,

Candace Dellacona: Yeah.

Genice Lee: trying to understand
how she sees the world.

I grew up, I came up with
none of the technology.

She's been raised with a lot of
the technology and a lot more

access to different opinions
that come from around the world.

So when we talk about, for
example, the books behind us,

those, that's my research library.

And so I find she loves to read,
which is great, and she will often

resource the books of my library for
projects at school because she herself

is quite artistic in and of herself
from drawing to character creation.

And so she will research the books because
she loves the styles from the 1930s.

And so she'll come and take the
books off my shelf and look at the

objects, the furniture, the clothes.

And so it's quite amusing for me
to hear vintage being the 1980s.

I'm like, vintage is the 1980s?

That is hilarious.

But when my mother was alive, to
watch her interact with my mom.

And when sometimes there were complaints
about, oh, school or whatever, we

all have complaints growing up.

To encourage her to talk to my mom
about did your grandmother love school?

What was the difference for her?

And again, to tap those stories, to bridge
the gap between that generation so that

she could understand what my mom valued
and why education was so important to her

and how different her life was for her
versus what my daughter has access to.

And then even myself, what I value
in the space that I am in and

why I love appraising, why I love
the work, why I love legacy, why

it's so important to share those
stories between all the generations.

And even though my daughter doesn't
want any of these books behind me, I

have definitely stressed the importance
of the value of the books, just as I

have clients that reach out to me that
want to emphasize to their children

the value of their art collections.

Candace Dellacona: Sure.

Genice Lee: For example, so that
daughter doesn't give away a, a Mayhew

piece that could be 10 to $15,000
because they don't have an inventory

or any instruction about the piece.

Someone comes in and says, oh, you
know, I always admired that p piece

of artwork that hung in your dining
room, in your family of can I have it?

And they go, sure.

Yeah.

Because they don't know the value.

And so I think that's really where we
pass along in this sandwich generation

conveying values that are important to us.

And me being in the middle at
one point before my mother passed

away sharing my values with my
daughter and my mother, sharing

her values with me and my daughter.

And so just to convey the legacy
of values or why we value an object

has been important in my family.

Candace Dellacona: I love that
and also, the connection with

your daughter as it relates to the
younger generation in technology.

I think for all of our kids,
my kids, your daughter.

I think it will be easier for them
to preserve the legacy because there

are so many technological advances
that make it so convenient to do that.

If you think about our grandparents
trying to find a way to record a

voice or a story, it probably would've
been a lot more difficult to do.

But we all have phones in our pockets
that have that capacity to capture

voices and images and one of my
favorite tools I'll tell you is just a

shout out to Google, but Google Photos
does an identification for faces.

If you can identify somebody in one
picture and you were talking about,

the lost art of writing on the back
of a photograph and being able to scan

in additional images, and maybe you'll
find that person in other images as

well, and using that technology to
help you preserve that culture and

the legacy and continue the story.

So I love that bringing in the next
generation to complete our story.

Genice Lee: I'd love to piggyback on
your comment about Google Photos and

as an appraiser, one of the main things
that we do is we have to identify the

object, and so I definitely do not
discourage people from using that feature

in Google to grab the image of an object
so that they can understand what it is.

A lot of times the
question is what is this?

And oftentimes, not all the time, but
oftentimes it will give you the first step

into understanding, oh, the item is this.

Now, where I caution people is I
say you don't necessarily wanna

let Google be your appraiser,

Candace Dellacona: Fair.

Genice Lee: It will be with the
first step of identifying the object.

It may not convey the appropriate
markets, depending on what's going

on with the piece, but it will help
you to identify what it is and then

allow you to move forward from there.

So I also do tell people, no, I don't
have a problem with people, grabbing

an image or using that technology.

It's smart.

It definitely lets them know, do
I wanna pursue this any further

or has my question been answered?

Candace Dellacona: I love that.

And I think what it comes down to is
you have to go to the expert and that's

really where you come in, Genice.

Where you really can come in and help
families at a time, often when they're

grieving and helping them sort through
the noise to figure out, what is worth

the effort of a family to preserve and
what perhaps is better worth donating to

someone who perhaps could use the object.

I know as an estate attorney, people like
you are an invaluable resource to cut down

on the time and sometimes you know the
sadness as it relates to certain objects

because it can provide insight as you say
to something that you may not have known

about that person when they were here.

So I love that you're so
passionate about legacy building

and the preservation of culture.

And I just wanna remind everyone that
although you are based in Texas, every

time we talk, you are somewhere else.

So I know you travel and
you're an incredible resource

to people across the country.

And services like yours
are really invaluable.

So I just wanna say thank you so
much for spending some time with us

and giving us your amazing insight.

Genice Lee: Thank you for having me,
and I so appreciate that we share this

heartbeat around legacy and families.

Candace Dellacona: Me too.

Thanks again, Genice.

And for all of those who are interested
in learning more, I will have all of

Genice's contact information in the show
notes and thanks for tuning in everyone.